1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the promotion and customization of benefits offered and provided to financial service industry customers, such as the users of payment transaction systems and methods, e.g., credit/charge card holders, and more particularly to a system and method for interacting with such customers and gathering information with their permission to tailor the marketing of products and the offering of benefits to them.
2. Description of the Related Art
Consumers today are widely solicited by various entities in the financial services industry, such as banks, credit card associations, and other financial institutions, as well as by such commercial entities as department stores and like merchants, to open accounts which facilitate payment for transactions conducted between a consumer and the entity. These entities, hereinafter referred to as Sponsor/Account Providers, typically offer accounts that have personal payment vehicles, such as cards, associated with them that are issued to individuals, hereinafter referred to generally as Customer/Account Holders, for use at the point of sale of an article or service by being presented to effect payment. As a result, an individual consumer can accumulate a number of personal cards and will normally use a variety of them when shopping at different stores, or when shopping by telephone or Internet, or for transactions at ATMs. To compete for preference over other payment providers, some Sponsor/Account Providers offer products and services that provide special benefits to their Customer/Account Holders in the form of premiums, insurance, or discounts on products. These promotional programs vary in the benefits offered and in the manner and to which Customer/Account Holders, they are offered. Typically benefits are provided to all of the Customer/Account Holders of a Sponsor/Account Provider whether the Customer/Account Holders are aware of or are interested in the benefit or not, so that, for the most part, the benefits are not well tailored to the needs and desires of the large number of Customer/Account Holders that are effected. Even when some targeting has been attempted, most marketers of payment products, i.e., most Sponsor/Account Providers, are still not aware of the preferences or stated interests of individual Customer/Account Holders because Sponsor/Account Providers primarily rely on data based on behavioral purchase patterns to determine interest in specific benefits as opposed to relying upon specific Customer/Account Holder stated interests and needs. While using behavioral data is an effective method to target Customer/Account Holders for future promotions, it is an altogether limiting method for helping Sponsor/Account Providers determine benefits appropriate to an individual Customer/Account Holder. Beyond Sponsor/Account Providers, other enterprises such as fulfillment centers (Fulfillment Centers), providers of benefits (Benefit Providers), credit recording, checking, and approving bureaus (Credit Bureaus), and organizations related to the approval of, transactions with, and promotions to payment vehicle users currently act largely independently using their proprietary systems so that often manual processes are needed to interact with each other. Consequently, current Customer/Account Holder benefit promotions can constitute an expense for the Sponsor/Account Provider that does not always provide a worthwhile return.
Accordingly, many special promotions and benefits can constitute a considerable expense to the Sponsor/Account Providers of payment vehicles (e.g., credit cards) while failing to efficiently provide benefits to their Customer/Account Holders. Thus, existing benefits systems tend to be inefficient and do not optimally serve either the Sponsor/Account Providers or their Customer/Account Holders.
The solution to the problem of efficiently providing benefits to financial service industry Customer/Account Holders or alternative payment users in accordance with the present invention involves the provision of a System and Method by which financial services companies, e.g., Sponsor/Account Providers, Credit Bureaus, Benefit Providers, and Fulfillment Centers interact with their payment device end users, i.e., Customer/Account Holders, and gather information with permission to enable the providers to efficiently tailor promotional programs to the appropriate Customer/Account Holder base.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a System and Method by which members of the financial services industry, such as banks, payment card associations, and other financial institutions, as well as department stores and other merchants, Sponsor/Account Providers, Credit Bureaus, Fulfillment Centers, and Benefit Providers, can efficiently offer promotional programs to their Customer/Account Holders that use alternative payment vehicles such as charge, credit, debit, chip (smart), and stored value cards, as well as checking, online and any other transaction accounts, and effectively interact with all enterprises related to these processes.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a System and Method that is capable of being tailored to the needs and desires of the Customer/Account Holders through the gathering, with their permission, of appropriate information for this purpose.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a System and Method by which Sponsor/Account Providers, marketers, transaction processors, and Credit Bureaus can facilitate and efficiently carry out promotional programs, and by which these same groups can more easily and efficiently interact with one another and the Customer/Account Holder to provide such benefits.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide diverse and multiple media channels, e.g., a web site, or a Customer/Account Holder service call center, for the use of a Customer/Account Holder and for the Sponsor/Account Provider to allow the end user (Customer/Account Holder) to select the method of communication most beneficial to that consumer.
It is also an object of the invention to provide Sponsor/Account Providers with relevant, vital, and usable data whereby the Sponsor/Account Provider can conduct analysis and measurement and in turn develop marketing campaigns tailored to offer promotions or benefits in a one-to-one relationship with the Customer/Account Holder.
It is also an object of the invention to supply Benefit Providers and Sponsor/Account Providers with a tool that makes available vital information necessary for such Providers to conduct operational and strategic business planning as well as to provide support and information necessary for managing current product development and creating new product development initiatives.
It is also an object of the invention to provide Benefit Providers with relevant, vital and usable data whereby the Benefit Providers can more efficiently manage product and service inventories, can conduct analysis and measurement and, in turn, can promote new products and services to Sponsor/Account Providers quickly and efficiently.
It is also an object of the invention to provide the users of the System with a more intuitive and simpler user interface that enables the user to conduct nearly all transactional and decision-making processes within one screen, or more effectively, in fewer screens than are currently used in today's web-enabled interactions.
It is also an object of the invention to provide the Sponsor/Account Providers that use the System with a template design format that enables a Sponsor/Account Provider to customize the presentation to Customer/Account Holders so as to private-label, or privatize with its own company brand, the presentation on the actual system providing the Customer/Account Holder with a sense that the System is owned and operated by the Sponsor/Account Provider.
It is also an object of the invention to provide Sponsor/Account Providers with a means to directly, immediately and in a paperless manner provide Customer/Account Holders with product and service terms, conditions and warranties.